Who Will Direct Star Wars Episode VII? Moviefone Has Some Ideas

So Star Wars is a Disney property now, and a new movie is scheduled to come out in 2015. That's really not that far away. Disney must have some ideas about where they're going to take this thing to get it out by then. Either that or it will be extremely rushed.

Moviefone has some pretty interesting thoughts about it, and drops a slew of possible names, the first being Steven Spielberg, as the head of the new Lucasfilm is longtime Spielberg producer Kathleen Kennedy (in addition to the fact that he has been said to have been the first choice for Return of the Jedi, and is credited as an assistant director on Revenge of the Sith). Moviefone's Christopher Campbell goes on to say:

However, perhaps more likely is the hire of another director Kennedy has worked with, including M. Night Shyamalan (“The Last Airbender”), Gary Ross (“The Hunger Games”), Simon Wincer (“Free Willy”), John Patrick Shanley (“Doubt”), Robert Zemeckis (“Flight”) or “Captain America: The First Avenger” helmer Joe Johnston, who actually worked as an effects artist on the first trilogy of “Star Wars” films.

Then there are filmmakers in the Disney stable, such as Tim Burton (“Alice in Wonderland”), Gore Verbinski (“Pirates of the Caribbean”), Joseph Kosinski (“Tron Legacy”), Jon Turteltaub (“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”), Kevin Lima (“Enchanted”), Simon Wells (“Mars Needs Moms” and numerous animated films produced by Kennedy), Joe Nussbaum (“Prom” and, funny enough, “George Lucas in Love”) and the Pixar regulars. Maybe Andrew Stanton could make up for the “John Carter” flop with a similar sort of picture with a greater pre-sold audience? Another interesting possibility would be Edgar Wright, who referenced “Star Wars” a lot in his TV series “Spaced” and who will soon be working with Disney/Marvel on “Ant-Man.” That film is set for 2015 as well, though, so if he was game or gutsy enough he’d have to direct “Episode VIII” or a later film.

It could be any of these people, or it could be somebody else entirely, but Disney is probably going to have to make an announcement sometime in the near future. It's already almost 2013, which would put the release date at just over two years away. Or maybe the world will actually end in 2012.